Q:  What if a site is blocked and it shouldn't be?

A:  If a website is blocked that should not be blocked, please click on the submit option directly from the error page that you see when you attempt to access the blocked website.  Please check the URL given on that blocking page and make sure that it is the page you were trying to reach and that it is not an IP address.  (Your URL must consist of a text name.  IP addresses will not work. See question on IP addressing).

Q:  What if a site is coming through that shouldn't?

A:  All filter related issues regarding blocking websites, unblocking websites or reporting the filter is allowing objectionable material through should be reported via email addressed to admin@ifsis.com.  We take these reports very seriously and every one will be investigated and you will receive a reply.

Q:  Why do some harmless sites get blocked?

A:  It must be remembered that certain words and phrases will cause a page to be blocked.  Very often the phrase is harmless in one context, but may not always be so.  For instance consider the word "sex".  In most cases we would not want to see pages with sexual content.  However a school biology report may be discussing the differences in plumage between male and female birds.  It may have the word "sex" on that site numerous times.  This page could possibly exceed the weighted phrase list (see next question).

Q:  Some pages block because of "weighted phrase limit exceeded".  What does this mean?

A:  There are certain words or phrases, which carry a weight or a value.  These are generally words or phrases that have sexual or violent connotations.  For instance the word sex will carry a weight of 5, while rape has a weight of 20.  If the sum of all the weights on a page exceeds 120 then we deem that page to be non viewable and it gets blocked.  Certain phrases may have a weight of 200, so that if that phrase or word is anywhere on the page, even once, we will block the page. Weighted phrasing is just one of a number of methods we use to scan the contents of a page.  It is the way we catch pages that have never been seen by our system before.  Sometimes this will be too strict and block a site such as a newspaper or church because they discuss these topics.  The filter cannot determine why the phrase is on the page, only that it is.  In these cases fill in the form on the blocking page and we will remedy the situation.

Q:  I have the IP address of a harmless site and the filter blocks it.  Why?

A:  Lately a lot of the porn sites are not using names - they are using IP addresses which makes them very difficult to block.  To combat this we have been forced to ban IP addresses.  Please call this URL by its name.  It is always better to call a site by name.  The IP address can change, but the name will normally find it. If a search engine directed you here, please try a different way to find your site.  Search engines just give you what they find and if someone has listed a site by its IP address you will see that.

Q:  I often find pages blocked when I have used the search engine ?Ask Jeeves?

A:  Unfortunately when Ask Jeeves sends you to a site - it passes you through many other sites to get there.  The filter will check all the sites in that path.  In some cases there are some pretty bad words on those other sites.  You probably find that no single one of those sites would be banned, but all those suspect words taken together cause the filter block to kick in.  Please try using another search engine such as google.com, which does not try keeping you inside their own site.  Using Ask Jeeves will unfortunately often have this result, while Google or yahoo (and most other search engines) will just send you to the site you asked for.

Q:  Instead of the blocked site page, I get a cache access denied page.  What is this?

A:  You get this page when the filter itself cannot find the site you have asked for.  Please read the message on that page - it tells you why the server could not access that page.  In the past - if your browser could not read a page you got a local access denied message from your own browser.  Using our filter - you will not see that message - you will see the cache access denied page which tells you that the filter server can not find the page you have asked for. Generally it means that the page asked for, either does not exist or that server may be down.  These are URL's that you will not find, whether you use our filter or not. There is nothing we can do about these.  Please try again later.

Q:  Why do I get an inappropriate email once in a while?

A:  Email filtering and web content filtering are two different functions.  Our Maranatha.net email is protected with our Spam and Virus Blocker which is 99% effective at blocking out inappropriate material.  Our web content filter is also 99% effective at blocking all inappropriate websites accessed through your browser.  This way, we protect your Internet experience by filtering outgoing browsing as well as incoming emails.  But, if you are using your own email address, such as username@cable.com, we have NO control over your email and only your cable provider can protect you from spam and viruses.  Remember though, no matter what your connection, your outgoing web browsing will always be protected with our filter service.